WASHINGTON— The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a proposed rule and policy updates to strengthen the biological integrity, diversity and environmental health of the National Wildlife Refuge System.

The proposed rule, published in today’s Federal Register, would allow continued use of genetically engineered crops, pesticides and conventional agricultural practices, but require that refuge managers comply with requirements, including ensuring biological integrity, diversity and environmental health. It comes after refuges were criticized for allowing private commercial agricultural operators to spray dangerous pesticides such as dicamba, paraquat and 2,4-D on hundreds of thousands of acres of national wildlife refuge lands.

“This proposed rule is a critical acknowledgment that commercial agricultural practices on national wildlife refuges have to be reined in,” said Lori Ann Burd, environmental health director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Refuge managers have allowed vast acreages of private crops to be planted in our precious national wildlife refuges and then drenched in some of the most dangerous pesticides around. If the rules are implemented right, this new approach could be a big step toward replacing those destructive practices with actions that truly support the plants and animals our refuges were created to protect.”

The Service published its policy on the refuge system’s biological integrity, diversity and environmental health in January 2001. The policy outlined a number of objectives but did not address conventional agricultural practices, one of the most egregious threats to wildlife on refuges.

The proposed rule prohibits the use of genetically engineered organisms unless they are deemed necessary to meet key objectives. It also says refuges may allow pesticide use following review and inclusion in an integrated pest management plan when necessary to meet key objectives. And it prohibits agricultural practices except when they are determined necessary to meet key objectives that cannot be achieved through natural processes.

“Birds rely on national wildlife refuges for breeding, shelter and refueling during migration; they should not have to face the threat of agricultural chemicals on these lands,” said Hardy Kern, director of government relations for American Bird Conservancy. “We applaud the Service’s actions.”

The Center for Biological Diversity’s 2020 No Refuge report used Fish and Wildlife Service data to reveal that more than 350,000 pounds of dangerous agricultural pesticides were sprayed on more than 363,000 acres of refuge lands in 2018 alone.

Among other harmful practices, the Service has allowed aerial spraying of drift-prone dicamba, which is highly toxic to fish, amphibians and crustaceans. It also allowed more than 88,000 pounds of products containing glyphosate to be used on more than 69,000 acres in the refuge system in 2018. Glyphosate has been shown to play a key role in driving the precipitous decline of monarch butterflies.